Compare the Candidates
Get the Facts on the Candidates Before You Vote
Issue: Defunding the Police
Pamela Campos
Pamela Campos stands arm-in-arm with groups who have advocated for defunding the police – like the South Bay Progressive Alliance, who regularly hosts events for her campaign, and who’s endorsement is featured prominently on her website.
In July of 2020, those groups proudly signed on to a letter “demanding the defunding of the San Jose Police Department”
Sources:
South Bay Progressive Alliance, “Policies, Bills and Positions”
SV Debug: “To the City of San Jose: Divest from Police and Invest in Community”
Pamela’s Endorsements, “https://pamela4sj.com/endorsements/”
Joe Lopez
Joe Lopez is a 35-year law enforcement veteran who knows what it takes to keep us safe. That’s why Joe is proud to be supported by San Jose’s rank and file police officers.
He knows we need to hire more police and make sure they have the training, tools and support they need to keep us safe.
Public safety is Joe’s number one priority – and Joe has never, and will never, support calls to defund the police or make our communities less safe.
Homelessness
Pamela Campos
To solve our city’s homelessness crisis, Pamela supports simply giving people money.
Numerous “guaranteed income” programs have been piloted in California, with various degrees of success. But while a guaranteed income is not guaranteed to solve our homelessness crisis, it is guaranteed to dramatically increase our taxes. And giving money to homeless people with no-strings attached will make San Jose a magnet for people to come to our city.
Source:
South Bay Progressive Alliance: Pamela Campos Candidate Questionnaire, Page 3
Joe Lopez
Joe Lopez supports requiring everyone to come indoors. He will focus on building safe and decent shelters quickly and at a dramatically lower cost than past programs.
Joe will expand the ‘Cash for Trash’ program so homeless people can work their way off the streets.
Joe supports Prop. 36 because it will bring back court mandated treatment for drug and alcohol additions which trap too many people on the streets. And Joe opposes any new jail diversion programs in our city and any new homeless facilities near residential neighborhoods (because our district has already done our fair share and now other communities need to do their fair share).
Source:
Joe Lopez’s 7-Point Plan on Homelessness
Instituting Massive New Taxes on San Jose Families
Pamela Campos
Pamela Campos supports instituting a massive new tax on many San Jose families and nearly all small businesses.
At a time when working families are being asked to pay more in rent, groceries, gas, housing, childcare, utility bills and other necessary costs of living, our families simply cannot afford to be hit with yet ANOTHER tax on their income.
Source:
South Bay Progressive Alliance: Pamela Campos Candidate Questionnaire, Page 6
Joe Lopez
Joe does not support increasing taxes on working families – especially at a time when the effects of inflation are making it so hard for many of us to make ends meet.
Instead, Joe is going to City Hall to hold our local government accountable. Before they ask for another dime, Joe will make sure they are spending our tax dollars wisely, and are held accountable to US.
Overturning Prop. 13
Pamela Campos
Pamela Campos has advocated to increase property taxes. Campos called Prop 13 “one of the most critically damaging tax laws in the state” and supports getting rid of it.
Overturning Prop 13 would mean that all of our property taxes go up.
It would mean that thousands of our neighbors would be at risk of being forced out of their homes.
It would mean that seniors, and others on a fixed income, would almost certainly be pushed out of their homes, where many of them have lived for decades.
Source:
South Bay Progressive Alliance: Pamela Campos Candidate Questionnaire, Page 7
Joe Lopez
You worked hard for your home – and Joe thinks you should be able to keep it.
Joe does not believe politicians should have free rein to increase our property taxes on top of what we already pay.
Joe believes we need to bring the cost of housing DOWN. And we can do that without destroying our single-family neighborhoods – by building more housing downtown, near transit and good jobs, and by streamlining the regulatory barriers that make it too difficult to build in our urban corridors.
Monterey and Bernal Jail Diversion Program
Pamela Campos
Pamela Campos took no position on Monterey and Bernal and defended the idea of future proposals like it.
At a neighborhood forum on September 5, Pamela said she needed more information before making a decision on the dangerous proposal from Santa Clara County to buy up the tiny homes site on Monterey and Bernal and replace it with a dangerous jail diversion program that would have housed dangerous individuals in our community – walking distance to multiple schools and daycares, single-family neighborhoods and shopping centers.
The proposal was spearheaded by County Supervisors Cindy Chavez and Susan Ellenberg, both of whom have endorsed Pamela Campos in this campaign – which begs the question, who is Pamela really fighting for?
Sources:
Video: San Jose District 2 Candidate Debate: Decision 2024, 15:00
Video: Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Meeting, August 27, 2024. 4:49:55
Joe Lopez
Although Pamela Campos said she “needed more information” before making a decision on the jail diversion program on Monterey and Bernal – Joe heard all that he needed to know to oppose it strongly.
As a 35-year law enforcement veteran who spent many years working in and managing our jails, Joe knew exactly what a proposal like that would mean for the safety of our community. Joe was one of the first neighborhood leaders to come out strongly against the proposal and helped lead the public opposition that eventually led to the project being cancelled.
Sources:
Joe Lopez Press Release: “San José D2 Candidate Joe Lopez Condemns County’s Purchase of Tiny Homes for Jail Diversion Program,” August 20, 2024
San Jose Mercury News: Community uproar forces delay of county’s plan to transform San Jose tiny home site into jail diversion
Joe Lopez Press Release: “Jail Diversion Program in Our Community Postponed (For Now),” August 27, 2024.